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I am purchasing a new potters wheel, and I am trying to decide what model
to buy. I was told by my pottery instructor, who has been teaching for
over 25 years, that the he has found the cone drive Shimpo wheels to be the
most reliable. I asked two different suppliers if the RK-10 Super was cone
drive. One supplier said "I fix them all the time, Shimpo hasn't made cone
drive wheels in years." The other supplier said "I fix them all the time,
I am sure that they are still manufactured with cone drives." Who is
right?

I understand that Shimpo also has a master series, which is belt drive.
Since the suppliers are out of town, I can't open up the wheel and see for
myself.
the cone drive is the deal ..mines at least 25 years
old.. you can tune them up yourself and the action is
much better than a beltdrive. D.Harvey

Have you tried contacting Shimpo? I have had very helpful responses from Shimpo in Japan regarding parts for old wheels - they supplied a drive ring for an RK2 and a foot pedal control cable for an RK 10. Plus, for the RK 2 I found that some of the rubber mountings used on the later RK 10 are almost identical (Shimpo claim the rubber mountings for the RK 2 are discontinued) I rebuilt my RK 2 using replacement mountings and a new drive ring and it's as sweet as a nut now.

Try searching for a parts list on the Shimpo support web site. If you can quote a part number to Shimpo that will greatly help them support you.

Regarding cone drive: the RK2 uses cone drive from motor an intermediate wheel, which then uses a belt to drive the wheel head. The RK 10 (AKA RK 21) uses a "metallic traction drive" attached to the motor, which then drives a similar belt that takes power to the wheel head. The advantage of a cone drive is that the motor is running at full speed all the time, whereas a variable speed motor is running very slowly at low wheel head speeds, so is easier to stop with a heavy clay load. The RK 2 and RK 10 are tough little brutes and should easily overcome your attempts to stop them.